Cricket World Cup preview

England will be difficult to beat at their home tournament

Trying to find a weakness in the England ODI squad is difficult at the moment. Eoin Morgan’s team have looked like favourites for a while now, and home advantage may be enough to see England finally win a Cricket World Cup.

When a team bats, bowls and fields as well as England do then, you must consider how you can find a way to overcome them.

The beauty of the England set-up is that players are interchangeable without losing the intensity and skill levels.

England bat all the way through their team but opening with Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy gives bowlers problems from ball one. Joe Root’s role is to keep the scoreboard ticking over, which he can do with metronomic regularity, while Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler dismantle the bowling at the other end.

Without injuries, it’s unlikely that James Vince will see much game time.

Even if England lose early wickets, they have all-rounders like Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Tom Curran to hit out if required.

England’s bowling options are varied. With the addition of Jofra Archer, it’s an exciting proposition of pace at both ends with Mark Wood. Archer regularly tops 85mph while Mark Wood exceeds 90mph. Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett are fine one day bowlers while Adil Rashid’s leg-spin gives another dimension to the bowling unit. Stokes and Curran are excellent bowlers to complete an impressive array.

If Bangladesh is to cause a massive upset against England, they must stop the home side from playing their game. England is much more comfortable chasing totals but have the confidence to chase any total down at the moment. It’s not ‘mission impossible’ but can be considered to be ‘mission difficult’.